Ayakeme: PDP not scared of election

The National Secretary of the Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly (SNPA), Dr. Ayakeme Whiskey, spoke with MIKE ODIEGWU on the preparations for the general elections and other issues in Asaba, the capital of Delta State.

Is PDP afraid of this election?

The PDP is not afraid of this election. We want a transparent election. Let the needful be done, let every registered Nigerian have access to their PVCs, let there be no undue influence from INEC. Look at the issue of the redeployment of resident electoral commissioners. In the past those who were in the south were moved to the north, those who were in the north were moved to the south to ensure that things were properly done, to ensure that nobody is favoured on the grounds of primordial ethnocentric consideration.

But, what did Jega do? Moved somebody from Sokoto to Jigawa State, moved somebody from Borno to Adamawa State. We have taken this thing seriously and have expended energy to investigate and it is not every northerner that is supporting Jega and his nonsense. Northerners are the ones giving us information. So, we are not talking trash. Jega has moved people in a manner that it will secure the northern interest which is however the vote come, let it come for Buhari and the process starts from the distribution of PVCs that is why the whole southern Nigeria is marginalised. The President said this recently that how could Lagos with 5.2million voter registration access to only 38 per cent of the voter’s cards.

You can imagine a situation where INEC recorded 60 million registered voters and only about 40 million of these registered voters received the PVCs. The Nigerian constitution guarantees anybody that is 18 years and above the right to vote and be voted for. INEC, as an institution has the responsibility to ensure that every registered voter gets his voter’s card. They have not lived up to their responsibility and they were planning to go ahead to conduct elections, disenfranchising over 20 million Nigerians,which wasn’t very fair. If you have 35 per cent of the entire population not being able to vote you can’t ascribe credibility to that election; you can’t say anybody who has won the election has won the election validly. Every registered voter must of choice vote and let not the disenfranchisement come from the institution which is legally powered to ensure that people are registered.

This same Jega conducted elections in 2011 and declared President Goodluck Jonathan the winner. What has really changed?

Jega just came in then. There are threats that power must go back to the north at all cost, that it is their birth right to rule this country and that if power does not go back to the north, there will be cataclysm in this country.

What about the threat of war by the Niger Delta ex-militants?

It was retaliation because, in the course of his campaign, the President was stoned twice in the North. We are democrats; nobody will create any crisis, if elections were free and fair and Jonathan does not win. But, not when you have crookedly promoted the victory for Buhari as we have discovered. Are you aware that the Northern Elders Forum supplied Jega with 150 laptops for each state of the North to assist in the registration of voters? Southern Nigeria People’s Assembly is made up of very credible Nigerians and, for us to come out openly to make a statement; it is not without foundation and basis.

There is also the allegation that members of your forum were sponsored by PDP to fly the kite of the Presidency

Do I look like a man that is being sponsored? I have always articulated my views very clearly. Let me make this very clear, we are not unaware of our historical facts. We know, as minorities, we are the most despised people in this country. As minorities, we are the most denied people in this country. As minorities, we know we are the most exploited people in this country that is why since 1966 oil was struck in commercial quantity the Ijaw territory is the way it has been until recently. This is because people felt good, they exploited our resources for their personal good. The whole craze about Jonathan must not come back, power must shift to the north is because of our oil, nothing more because Nigerian economy is standing on our oil. Remove oil, this economy collapses.

What our boys said was that ‘if you disqualify Jonathan though crooked and unfair means, you won’t see any oil to promote your government’. How much performance did Shagari bring to impact on the lives of Nigerians between 1975 and 1983, that everybody gave him the chance of becoming a two-time president before Buhari came and destroyed the government? How much performance can you credit to Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 and particularly between 1999 and 2003? We all rallied around Obasanjo to come back the second time. What are the sins of Jonathan? A man that has been able to project the economy of Nigeria; a man that has turned around so many infrastructure that has been moribund in this country; a man that has brought back agriculture that was our mainstay and long been forgotten and by virtue of these activities, we see an economy where the GDP is always on the rise. What are the sins of Jonathan that the whole north has come to say he must not come back, other than access to our commonwealth of which we the Ijaw people, the minority of south-south contribute over 90%.

Has this whole thing become a power struggle between the North and South?

Basically so because the north is unrepentant about their demand that Jonathan must not come back. They are unrepentant about their insistence that it is their permanent right to rule over Nigeria. They are unrepentant over their demand that power must shift to the north. Jega has become a willing tool in their hand. Jega is an Hausa-Fulani man, his people have conscripted him into their fold and that is why he has controlled the entire processes of INEC to favour them. The north-eastern states where there are crisis people have taken more PVCs than the whole south put together. Over 20 million PVCs have been distributed in the north west and only less than 40% of the PVCs have been distributed in Lagos state.

Are political leaders in the South encouraging thier people to collect the PVCs as their counterparts in the North are doing?

You are wrong. The process is this. In the North, they give these PVCs to traditional and political leaders to distribute. Nobody goes through the painstaking process of going through advertised list to indicate names. Come to the South, they enforce the rules, and this is what you must do first. It is clearly what has accounted for it. These are the entire scheme to ensure that we are deprived of legitimate vote so that Buhari must win at all cost.

But, has Jega not yielded to the pressure of postponing the election?

Jega yielded to no pressure. Sixty-six million Nigerians registered to vote. Only about 42 million Nigerians collected their voter cards. That is not readiness to conduct an election. There are technicalities that have frustrated the so-called card readers that Jega introduced.

Jega was not ready to conduct any election that would be credible. The bottom-line is free, fair credible election. All Jega had interest in doing was to scheme this election in favour of the north that is why the entire south was denied access to PVCs, the north has more than enough PVCs.

One thought on “Ayakeme: PDP not scared of election”

Election is a link to glory which all are waiting for. How could PDP which is in the
best possition and form to win te win the election could be afraid.
They (PDP) are in the best form because they had been tested and trusted!!!
Nigerian are well waiting to see them(PDP) coming back to Aso-Rock.
#GEJ4Nija